Caryl

An excellent cake and shows they know what is important to you :thup: (Those rocks look tasty )

We have some members in here who also live in Invercargill so should be able to help with local knowledge once you know what you want.

I am sure a fish could choke to death. As it swims about with the leftover hanging from its mouth you have to wonder what is happening to what is on the inside. Other animals slowly dissolve it with stomach acids but not sure how a fish digests or if it has internal muscles to keep the food going down and through.

You have a kitchen bench with heaps of space??? We had a 3ft tank on our bench island years ago - bowed the whole bench so we could not shut the cupboards underneath. We thought it would be ok with the cupboard divider giving central support but it wasn't enough. Not as small as your tank though so I am sure you will not have the same problem, depending on which part of the bench you place the tank, and what is underneath. I would put poly underneath. Makes it easier to move the tank if you need to slide it a bit for any reason (to get at something dropped behind, wipe up a spill etc)

I suspect he meant; Note that is is illegal to collect from reserves/parks Gambusia were a major mistake to release here and have caused problems ever since while never doing the job they were originally brought in for!

I am pleased to hear it wasn't Denny! I was thinking he was in a lot of trouble but probably mistook the axolotl for a rabbit :-?

Currently available or allowed? The above biosecurity lists tells you what is allowed. As to what is currently here, that changes all the time.

Let me slip into something a little more comfortable

Some of you seem to think the idea is to make it impossible for the next person to form a word. This is not so! astute

Yes they do but if this is new behaviour for your particular fish you might want to think about other reasons for this - like low oxygen levels. If they are otherwise fine though I would not worry about it.

One of the guys had this at a BBQ yesterday... I did not have my camera on hand to get a pic of it flying but it flew well (I did not take this pic)

I was thinking more a faulty heaterstat than room temperature.

Fish lie, so don't believe them when they claim they are starving.

I was thinking temperature too. WCMM cope with a wide range of temps but leopardfish don't.

Personally, I would be feeding sparingly until I was sure the filter had caught up with the bioload.

If the fish are happy you might be fine then. Keep a very close eye on them though for the next week or so.

Without knowing what your test readings are I have no idea!

Oooh pretty! :thup:

I don't use test kits either but I have never had a problem like yours so they weren't needed.

There's no way of telling without testing the water.

The stick-on strips are not as good as the internals. Digital ones are cheap these days too and accurate, as far as I know. If you are buying a glass one that sticks on with a small suction cup, line them all up in the shop then move aside the ones whose temp varies greatest from the rest then pick the one that seems to agree with the majority. That will hopefully be the most accurate.

The type of fish makes a big difference to the bioload. 100 guppies will produce a lot less waste than 100 small plecs and the bigger the fish the bigger the poo.

Then I would be doing 30 - 40% water changes daily. How long you do these depends on cycling, which is why I suggested a test kit. I may have read it wrong but I gather it was the filter media in current use at the time the cat created the problem, that you say dried out in the bucket? Or did you mean the old filter had media that had dried out? Did you have any used media that had not dried out? If so, that is what should be in the filter now being used. If you have, you should be fine. If you haven't then the tank will have to cycle again. This is why it pays not to overstock, or if you do, make sure you have contingencies in place for when trouble arises.

If that filter was a used one that had been used continually when you added it (and not sat on an empty tank before adding it to the damaged tank) you should be fine but a 20% daily water change would not go amiss. Keep a close eye on the fish for any change in behaviour - gasping at the surface, listlessness, clamped fins etc.

If the tank is heavily stocked then I would be doing water changes and not just hope for the best. Have you got a test kit? Using one will tell you, quickly and simply, if, and when, a water change is required.